Supreme Court Directs MoRTH To Create Portal And Toll-Free Number For National Highway Encroachment Complaints

The Supreme Court of Tuesday (August 27) directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to establish a portal and a toll-free number for citizens to lodge complaints about encroachments on National Highways.

A bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih passed the order in a writ petition by one Gyan Prakash Mishra highlighting the issue of encroachment on roads.

“The Ministry shall also endeavour to create a portal on which citizens can lodge complaints about the encroachments on highways. On the portal a facility should be made available for citizens to the photographs of the encroached portions and location details of encroached portion. Moreover a facility should also be created of a toll-free number”, the Court directed.

The amicus curiae highlighted the Ministry's Circular dated March 18, 2024 and said that it is necessary to constitute proper inspection teams to prevent and remove encroachments on National Highways. This Circular provides that inspecting authorities of the Ministry must ascertain unauthorised occupation during inspection of National Highways and bring out the fact and extent of unauthorised occupation in the Inspection Note, directing the designated Highway Administrations to remove the unauthorised occupation.

She further pointed out that the timelines for inspection in the Ministry's earlier Circular dated March 18, 2020, are only for the construction stage.

The Court directed MoRTH to constitute teams for frequent and regular inspections of all national highways. It also stated that a mechanism should be established to ensure that any encroachments found by these teams are reported to the competent authority empowered to remove encroachments.

The Supreme Court ordered MoRTH to create a digital portal where citizens can file complaints about encroachments, including uploading photos and location details of the encroached areas. A toll-free number should also be set up for the same purpose.

The Court directed the Ministry to ensure widespread publicity of this portal and toll-free number across all national highways and in the media. The Court has given MoRTH until September 30, 2024 to implement these directions and directed it to submit data on the action taken in terms of Circular dated March 18, 2024, in the form of an affidavit within three weeks.

The Court said that the mechanism developed for National Highways should be extended to State Highways.

“We may also make it clear that the mechanism which will be available for the National Highways will have to be extended to State highways as well and we propose to issue directions in this regard on the next date.”

The Court kept the matter for interim directions on October 14, 2024.

On February 26, 2024, Supreme Court noted that there was a lack of proper machinery for regular surveys of highway encroachments and no grievance redressal mechanism for citizens to report unauthorized occupations or congestions on highway land. The Court directed Highway Administrations to devise a scheme for regular highway inspections, establish a grievance redressal mechanism, and ensure swift action based on citizen complaints.

Case no. – Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1272/201

Case Title – Gyan Prakash v. Union of India & Anr.